Okay, I'm almost done with the next chapter, but I'm not going to have a lot of time to write in near future. If we're very lucky, I'll be able to finish it tomorrow morning. If not, who knows when the next chapter will be finished. I just thought that I'd inform you of that.

“Thanks, Kappa Lead,” Flash said. “We’ll meet you at the hangar as soon as we can.” Hunter had almost forgotten why he had pinned himself against the wall, but when he stepped out, he was brought to a bitter realization.

ACP rounds lanced off his armor, leaving dents and scratches. Flash pulled him back against the wall. “What were you thinking, walking into the line of fire like that?” Flash asked, a hint of laughter in his voice.

“I was,” Hunter began, stumbling on his words, “trying to give the enemy the wrong impression.” Hunter paused. “The impression that we’d make stupid mistakes like that.” He smiled underneath his helmet. Even though it wasn’t visible, they knew each other’s emotions, and what they were thinking. They were raised like that and trained to know what each other was thinking.

“Right,” Flash said, detecting Hunter’s smile. It was good that they could still joke. They wouldn’t have that pleasure for much longer. They could all sense each other hardening up a little bit. That’s what war will do to you. Flash would make sure that they didn’t get too uptight, but eventually, he’d break too. Hunter knew it, but he didn’t like to think about it.

“That I did,” Flash replied. “So what ordinance do we have at our disposal?”

“A myriad of grenades, a roll of explosive tape, and a missile warhead,” Hunter responded. “Storm has all the big explosives.” Hunter pulled out the missile warhead. “I wonder what we could do with this?”

“Well,” Flash began, “I suppose that you could turn that into some proximity mine.”

“Way ahead of you, pal.” Hunter had already secured the warhead to a metal plate and was working on attaching a motion sensor that would trigger the warhead to explode upon enemy movement in its radius.

“Yeah, that’s right,” Flash said. “Now, would you like me to walk you through it?”

Hunter stopped working. “Sure.”

“Well there isn’t enough time now, so you’ll have to figure it out by yourself.” They both chuckled. Hunter finished soldering the last wires in place. He then secured it to the wall.

“When those Trandos give chase to us, this baby,” Hunter tapped on the makeshift proximity mine, “will blow the wall in on them.”

“Sounds good. Now start it up and let’s get out of here.”

“Roger that, Flash,” Hunter replied pulling out a remote trigger. It was a good thing that he had a spare, or else they’d have to activate it manually, and be obliterated at the exact moment.

Hunter tipped the side of his helmet out from behind the window terminal. The early morning sun was beginning to break through the unusually large ice crystals blowing through the frigid air, but the dim gray sunlight was hardly enough to make out any sign of enemies further down the corridor. Hunter removed two thermal detonators from his utility belt, just to be safe. He checked his rifle’s ammo count to make sure that he had adequate firepower for the quick break to Iota Fire Point Two.

“Are we good?” Flash asked, bringing his pistol next to his cheek.

“Good to go,” Hunter replied. “When these detonate,” he said, referring to the two grenades in his hand, “we move out.”

“I got you,” Flash told Hunter reassuringly.

“Okay, here we go.” Hunter shot his arm out from his cover and chucked the two grenades down the hallway. Then he pulled himself back. Shots erupted as a result of Hunter’s hand, but they were cut short due to the twin explosions, the outcome of the two thermal detonators. Hunter looked down as a thick stream of green blood flowed towards them.

“That’s our cue.” Hunter and Flash took three large strides to build their speed, and then performed a military summersault as more bullets pounded by them. Hunter quickly pressed the trigger on the proximity mine. Nothing appeared to happen, but when Hunter looked back, he saw the distinct flashing red light that meant the mine was active.

Hunter was proud of his improvised mine. It was placed in such a way that even the best Trandoshan technicians wouldn’t be able to deactivate it. Hidden behind the window terminal, the mine was practically invisible. There was no way for their lizard friends to see it, let alone get to it to deactivate it.

Hunter also saw the flashes of Trandoshan submachine guns blazing behind him. He reached back with one hand on his DC-15s blaster rifle and pulsed a few shots into the fray.

“There’s no time for that,” Flash panted, kicking his knees into the air and stretching his feet out below him. “That mine’s gonna blow any moment now.”

Hunter didn’t have the time to respond. He whipped his rifle up to his chest and pressed it hard to his breastplate. The gunshot sounds continued. The organic slap of the Trandoshan’s feet ran through Hunter’s head. Hunter closed his eyes and braced for impact.

The hallway behind Flash and Hunter filled with fire. As the Trandoshan warriors tried to pass the mine, the wall blew inward, burying them in rubble. Flames chased the two commandos through the corridor. Hunter could feel warmth pouring over his body. Red flames licked the sides of his visor and dust from the explosion ate them up. Particles stuck to Hunters visor, causing him to lose vision.

“We should be almost there,” Flash commented, starting to slow down due to his lack of vision.

“My systems are starting to fail,” Hunter said, also coming to a stop. He looked down at the data pad stored on his utility belt. “I’m picking up high traces of EMP.”

Flash wiped off his visor and felt tingles of electricity throughout his body. “I can feel it,” he replied.

Faint streams of sunlight broke through the airborne dust particles revealing the silhouette of a large pile of steel and concrete. “This has to be Iota Fire Point Two,” Hunter said, stepping closer to examine the pile of debris. “See if we can contact Kappa Squad.”

“Roger that,” Flash said. “Kappa this is Iota six-oh, do you read me?” Static washed over the comm.

“Nothing? What could have happened to them?” Hunter asked, thousands of possibilities running through his mind.

“Maybe it’s not them,” Flash suggested. “Our comm. system might not be working properly because of the EMP.”

“Of course. Those di’kut Kaminoan engineers didn’t spend the time to fortify our comm. systems from electromagnetic pulses. That also means that Max and Storm might still be alive.”

Hunter quickly glanced down at his data pads and sensors. “Everything’s fried. Even my radiation sensor.” Flash pulled the radiation sensor off of Hunter’s belt. Even EMP showed up at zero.

Flash chuckled and threw the data pad onto the floor, crushing it with his boot. “I believe that,” he said sarcastically.

“Wait a minute,” Hunter said, pulling out his blaster rifle. He shot it at the ground. The blue plasma bolt flew out of the barrel and struck the ground. “Our weapons still work, barely.” Another bolt hit the ground, only after sputtering sparks for a few seconds. “All we really need is the infrared sensor on you sniper scope.”

Flash took off his DC-15x sniper rifle and shouldered it. He aimed at the pile of rubble. The scope showed all blue, except the black outlines of the rocks and the yellow lines of EMP running around the area. “The rubble is too thick.”

“Fierfek,” Hunter said casually. “What now?”

“Hold up,” Flash said, raising his hand. Hunter looked up from the stone he was about to kick. “There was a small orange spot on the surface of one of the concrete blocks. “What’s that?”

“What’s what,” Hunter asked, starting to feel a little impatient, mainly due to his concern for his squad mates. Flash pointed to the spot and walked up to it. Hunter followed. By the dim early morning sun, Hunter could see a small portion of bubbling rock.

“They must be cutting through with their vibro blades,” Flash commented.

“Right,” Hunter said, taking out his own vibro blade. “Cover me.” Flash pulled out his pistol and stood next to Hunter as he started hacking away at the solid rock with his vibration knife. Several minutes later, the solid rock was reduced to a thin layer of fizzing dirt. “How close are we?”

With one hand, Flash looked through his sniper scope at the rock. A bright red blob appeared against the placid cerulean background. “You’re close,” Flash replied. “I’m starting to think that Max and Storm aren’t dead.”

“I never thought that they were,” Hunter said jokingly; sweat dripped into his eyes and mouth. He was telling the truth too. Suddenly, the sound of gunfire could be heard to Hunter’s nine o’clock.

“Sure thing, bro,” Hunter replied. He could see the tip of another vibro blade sticking through the melted concrete. “Stand back!” he yelled into the pile of rubble. In one swift motion, Hunter brought his boot up and then down on the thin layer of material separating the members Iota Squad. The rock buckled and snapped, sending Hunter’s leg into the hollow beneath the rubble; small pieces of molten concrete hardened to his charred shin plates.

A hand from below gripped Hunter’s leg and pulled it in hard. Hunter lost his footing and was shoved against the rock. “What the…” Hunter said in confusion. Behind all of this, the sound of a small firefight roared on.

Flash finished firing a burst from his pistol and then ducked down behind some rubble. “What’s going on?” There was no time to wait for an answer. He turned around and went straight back to fighting.

Hunter struggled to free himself from the hole. Someone was grabbing his leg and pulling him in. All of a sudden, Storm’s head smashed through a thin layer of rock, which sent Hunter falling into the hollow cavern below the rubble. Storm fell back in from the exhaustion he’d gained trying to escape.

“What was that all about?” Hunter asked, slightly angry.

Storm was smiling under his helmet. “I just thought that I’d give you a scare before we met again. “You know, to…”

Hunter cut him off. “You nearly cracked my rib plates.”

“Sorry about that,” Storm said awkwardly. Well we’re all here now, right?”

“Don’t you think we should help him?” Max asked from a corner of the cavern. He was nursing his foot.

“What happened to you,” Hunter inquired, walking over to Max.

“Oh, he just got his foot crushed under some rubble. It’s just a flesh wound,” Storm replied. “I’m going to help out Flash.” Storm exited via the manmade hole in the ceiling of the void.

Hunter looked down at Max’s foot. It was mashed so badly, it looked like spaghetti. Pieces of boot armor suck out of the crushed flesh. “How bad is it?”

“Like Storm said, it’s just a flesh wound.” Max stood up, holding onto the ceiling. “I’ll be fine.” There was a large boom outside the rubble followed by a loud crack. Hunter could hear someone grunting.

There was another bang and Storm entered the cavern carrying Flash under his arms. “Freakin assassin droid,” Storm muttered. “Flash has been hit.”

Next Chapter? I have no idea, but hopefully it won't be another two weeks, lol. I'm kind of looking forward to writing some more after going to bball's house and discussing how we'd fit our fics together.

Btw, he hasn't posted for two months because his computer is broken, rofl.

Also, him and I are working on writing a book together this summer. Unfortunately, we can't post it here because it's not about Star Wars. But don't worry, I will continue this regardless of what else I'm writing.

as a matter of fact, i do . how do i send it to you? PM me your e-mail.
oh, and i got Hard Contact and Triple Zero today. i started reading the former and it's really good. i can see where you got your username

Lol, I've got company coming today and then I'll be going on vacation. I don't want to leave you hanging here for three more weeks though. I'll see if I can't work on it today and get a little bit done.

Well, my company is gone now, but I'll be leaving for the Mediterranean Sea this Wednesday, so I won't be able to write. Hopefully I'll be able to get it done by then. I may be experiencing some *shudders* writer's block, but hopefully, that won't stop me. I can tough it out...

Fierfek! I didn't get a chance to write today. I suppose taht I could have wrote insead of playing RC for two hours, lol, but I needed to practice for my clan. Oh well, I really hope I finish before Wednesday. If I don't, you'll just have to wait another week.